ALERT: Saturday’s Des Moines Farmers Market CANCELLED due to weather

UPDATE: The final Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market – set for Saturday, Oct. 31 – has been cancelled due to “weather related safety issues.”

Wayne Corey told The Waterland Blog early Friday afternoon (Oct. 30):

After many discussions with all the groups that put on a successful Saturday market, we are sorry to announce the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market for Saturday October 31st and the annual Chili Cook-Off have been canceled due to weather related safety issues.

Previously the market had to close early because of severe wind conditions that caused some damage to vendor’s equipment. Luckily no one was injured, and it looks like the same conditions are predicted for Saturday.

All vendors and chili cooking teams are being notified to give them as much notice as possible.

Our family showed up Saturday and we were all extremely disappointed. We look forward to this every year as a family. We live in Washington, we can adapt to bad weather. This easily could have been moved to the senior center or the field house. Cancelling this event was a bad call and soured our family on the market.

Per health department rules we can’t just change the location. We also had to consider the use of open flame and the windy conditions. We had canopies broken and vendors lost product earlier in the season in lesser winds. The winds were the worst we have seen. I’m sorry your family is soured on the market. We made the best decision for the safety of everyone involved.